Involving Parents

Involving Parents

Presenter: Russ Dyble – Local Development Officer

Parents are a good source of new adult volunteers, whether it is in a section or behind the scenes, but how have others managed to recruit them to help?

Handouts:

Adult Recruitment Sheet – give this to every parent when their child joins the Group – and make sure you follow up the offers which come back!

Family Information Form – Youth Membership – contains all the relevant information required about a new youth member, their parents and general permission statements.

A few of top tips on parent rotas:

• Give them a real job to do – making the squash is fine, but it doesn’t warrant them giving up an entire evening!
• Planning your programme in advance lets you know how many helpers you need. Why ask for two helpers every week when one week you might need four and the next you won’t need any.
• Make sure the parent know what you want them to do in advance – either the week before when they pick their child up, or give them a ring. It can be daunting for parents who don’t know what to expect.
• Try to find someone to co-ordinate your rota for you… If a parent tells you they can’t ever come because of younger brothers or sisters, this is a great job to offer them as it can be done from home (or even more likely, in the school playground!)
• Having an up-to-date parent rota displayed somewhere prominent in the meeting place acts as a constant reminder that you operate one and who has signed up to help on which evenings… It also allows parents to kow who to swap weeks with if they need to.

Further Information / Useful Links:

http://www.scouts.org.uk/bigadventure – The Big Adventure

http://www.scouts.org.uk/involvingparents – order the updated No Nonsense Parent’s Guide to Scouting (Where did all that mud come from?)

Related Questions

Do you see a Group Scout Active Support unit as a good way of involving parents on a rota to make them feel they belong to Scouting?

• A Scout Active Support unit should exist to support the Group/District/County fulfil an identified need. If you think this is the right route to involve the parents at your group you could choose to set up a Scout Active Support Unit – but you will need to draft a Service Agreement for the Unit Manager to work to.
• For parents helping on a rota less than once per month, it might be more appropriate to register them as Ocassional Helpers – rather than members of a Scout Active Support unit. If they help more than once per month, you should consider appointing them as an Assistant Leader or Section Assistant.
• An Active Support Unit should be a an exciting, lively and active unit (or team) – by opening a unit which only one or two people join it might affect the future success of Scout Active Support – so consider wisely whether it;s best to start a unit, or invite individuals to take up appointments.